Eleventy Chirpy Blog Template is an open-source blog template for the Eleventy (11ty) static site generator that recreates the user experience of the popular Chirpy Jekyll theme using a JavaScript-based stack instead of Jekyll and Bootstrap.
What is Eleventy Chirpy Blog Template?
Eleventy Chirpy Blog Template is a static blog template built with Eleventy (11ty), styled with TailwindCSS and Nunjucks templates, and bundled with Rollup for JavaScript. It takes markdown files as input and outputs a fully static blog with RSS, sitemap.xml, JSON-LD structured data, and Algolia search integration. The template was created by René Winkelmeyer (muenzpraeger) and powers his personal blog at blog.winkelmeyer.com. The live demo runs on Netlify at https://eleventy-chirpy-blog-template.netlify.app.
Key Features
- Lighthouse 100 — The template scores a perfect 100 on Lighthouse audits across performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO.
- Light and dark mode — Ships with both light and dark color schemes, toggled via the user interface.
- SEO and OpenGraph optimization — Includes OpenGraph tags, sitemap.xml generation, and JSON-LD structured data for search engines and social sharing.
- Responsive images — Automatically optimizes and generates responsive image sizes for different viewports.
- Prism-based syntax highlighting — Uses Prism.js to highlight code blocks in blog posts.
- RSS, sitemap, and JSON-LD — Generates an RSS feed (still supported), sitemap.xml, and JSON-LD metadata for syndication and SEO.
- Algolia Search — Integrates Algolia's Netlify plugin to provide full-text search for the blog.
- Developer tooling — Opinionated setup includes Prettier, ESLint, and markdownlint for code consistency; JavaScript is bundled with Rollup and CSS is built with TailwindCSS.
The template also supports JavaScript and CSS build optimization, accessibility best practices, and a one-click Netlify deployment button.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers who want a fast, accessible static blog with the clean UX of the Chirpy theme but prefer Eleventy over Jekyll.
- Eleventy developers who want a ready-made starting point with SEO, search, and responsive images already configured.
- Netlify users who want to deploy a blog with a single click and take advantage of the Netlify build plugin for Algolia search.
What can you do with it?
- Personal bloggers: publish markdown posts and automatically get an RSS feed, sitemap, JSON-LD metadata, and OpenGraph tags for social sharing.
- Developers: customize the blog by editing the siteconfig.js file, which is fully inline documented, and adjust TailwindCSS styles without touching build configuration.
- Search-savvy site owners: enable Algolia search through the Netlify plugin to give readers full-text search across all posts.
How does it work?
The template is configured through a single siteconfig.js data file. For local development, clone the repository, install dependencies with Yarn (or npm after removing yarn.lock), and run yarn dev to start a dev server on http://localhost:8080. Production builds require the NODE_ENV environment variable to be set to "production" to minify CSS and JavaScript. Deployment is offered via a one-click Netlify button, and the repository includes a commented .gitignore section for committing generated images to speed up build times.
Alternatives
- Chirpy Jekyll theme — The original theme this template is based on; it runs on Jekyll with Bootstrap instead of Eleventy and TailwindCSS.
- Eleventy High Performance Blog — A Google-authored Eleventy blog template that inspired this project and focuses on performance.
FAQ
Is Eleventy Chirpy Blog Template free?
Yes, the template is open source and hosted on GitHub. You can clone, modify, and deploy it freely for personal or commercial blogs.
What tech stack does it use?
It uses Eleventy (11ty) as the static site generator, Nunjucks for templating, TailwindCSS for styling, and Rollup for JavaScript bundling. It also integrates with Algolia for search via a Netlify build plugin.
How do I configure the blog?
All configuration lives in the siteconfig.js file inside the content/_data directory. The file is fully inline documented, so you can adjust site title, description, navigation, and other settings without touching the rest of the code.
Does the template support RSS?
Yes, it generates an RSS feed, along with sitemap.xml and JSON-LD metadata, as part of the build process.
